Health Care Reform:

Health Insurance & Affordable Care Act

Most States To Rely On Federal Website For 2015 Enrollment

WebMD News from Kaiser Health News

By Phil Galewitz

Wed, Apr 23 2014

Only two of the 36 states that relied on the federal insurance exchange this year -- Idaho and New Mexico -- plan to set up their own online marketplaces in time for the next open enrollment beginning Nov. 15.

Both those states had moved to run their own exchanges last year but couldn't get them working in time for the 2014 enrollment season so they used the federal exchange instead. No other states have announced similar plans and analysts say none is likely to be able to develop a detailed plan before the deadline in a little more than five weeks.

Election-year politics, tight deadlines and problems with health insurance exchanges in Oregon, Maryland and Hawaii dampened the interest of lawmakers in other states to form their own exchanges, despite the millions in federal funding that would be available under the Affordable Care Act.

The success of the federal exchange website, www.healthcare.gov, in enrolling millions of people after a notoriously rocky rollout also limited demand for state-run marketplaces, experts said.

"In a lot of ways, the federal exchange is not a bad thing — and could be more cost effective," said Sonya Schwartz, a research fellow at the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families.

Still, state-run marketplaces give states more control over the coverage expansion and enable them to tap into millions in federal dollars for marketing as well as outreach, she said.

But as states like Oregon found out, running their own exchange can be risky business. An Oregon committee is expected to decide Friday to throw in with the federal exchange, rather than attempt to salvage its troubled website in time for the next open enrollment season. Not a single resident has been able to sign up for coverage through the site since it went public Oct. 1. Federal and state officials have already agreed informally that shutting down the state site is the best path forward.

Counting Oregon, 35 states will rely on the federal website this fall — far more than envisioned when the law was approved in 2010.